Post-Noun Modifi ers 55
In the following examples, the antecedent noun is in bold:
Human: This is the young man whom I was telling you about.
Nonhuman: This is the computer that I was telling you about.
Spatial noun: This is the place where we agreed to meet.
Temporal noun: This is the time when/that we agreed to meet.
Exercise 4.6
Fill in the blank with an appropriate relative pronoun. The antecedent noun is in bold and the
adjective clause is underlined.
I know a Chinese restaurant (where) we can get really good dim sum.
1. It is a book has influenced us all.
2. It is a book message really influenced me.
3. He is staying with a cousin name is Williams.
4. He is staying with a cousin lives somewhere in Brookline.
5. We picked a date we could all get together.
6. Let me introduce you to my Uncle Jackson lives in Florida.
7. Let me introduce you to my Uncle Jackson I believe you have met before.
8. Let me introduce you to my Uncle Jackson company you may know about.
9. Hollywood is a city dreams seldom come true.
10. Do you remember the year Donna graduated from college?
11. The meals you get at camp leave a lot to be desired.
12. English is especially diffi cult for nonnative speakers school systems never used
English as a language of instruction.
13. The stove they just bought takes up most of their kitchen.
14. Please ask the operator is on duty.
15. Please ask the operator you already talked to.
16. The union called off the strike was scheduled to take place tomorrow.
17. Residents of the city have not registered will not be able to vote.
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56 Noun Phrases
18. The neighborhood I live is getting more expensive all the time.

15. All the diffi culties that we went through were worth it.
16. The questions were answered by an offi cial who asked not to be identifi ed.
17. John Marshall, whose foundation sponsored the conference, gave the opening address.
18. Any extras that you have should be returned to the offi ce.
19. We ended up watching a boring game whose outcome was never in doubt.
20. The commercials that we reviewed were all pretty bad.
Adjective clauses in casual conversation
The description of adjective clauses that we have given to this point is an accurate picture of
formal, written English. In casual conversation, however, adjective clauses are simplifi ed in two
different ways: who and whom may be replaced by that, and relative pronouns that play the role of
objects may be deleted.
Who and whom replaced by that
The relative pronouns who and whom are often replaced by that. For example, in written English,
you might see this more formal sentence:
The reporter who covered the story has received numerous journalism awards.
In conversation, you would be more likely to hear this:
The reporter that covered the story has received numerous journalism awards.
The relative pronoun whom is nearly always replaced by that in conversation. For example:
Written: The people whom we met with were all pretty upset.
Conversation: The people that we met with were all pretty upset.
Written: All the players whom the team nominated were selected for the
all-star team.
Conversation: All the players that the team nominated were selected for the all-
star team.
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58 Noun Phrases
Written: Someone whom you know told me all about what happened.
Conversation: Someone that you know told me all about what happened.
However, we do not use that instead of who or whom if the antecedent is a proper noun. For
example, we would say this:

deleted relative pronouns playing the role of objects:
The project that I am in charge of has been reasonably successful.
The subjects whom
we surveyed had all completed the questionnaire.
I am still close to the friends whom
I went to school with.
I bought it at the store that
you had recommended.
The injuries that
she received in the accident are not serious.
You will notice that Americans in casual conversation almost always prefer to avoid the rela-
tive pronoun whom. They will either replace it with that or delete it entirely. For example, you are
much more likely to hear this:
The people that I met in Spain were very friendly.
or this (where л ϭ a deleted relative pronoun):
The people л I met in Spain were very friendly.
rather than this:
The people whom I met in Spain were very friendly.
Another reason Americans avoid both who and whom is that it is hard to determine which
of these words to use. Using that or no relative pronoun at all nicely avoids having to make the
tricky grammatical choice between who and whom in the quick give-and-take of conversation.
Exercise 4.9
All of the following sentences contain at least one adjective clause. Underline all the adjective
clauses. Cross out the relative pronouns that can be deleted (including that). If the relative pro-
noun cannot be deleted, write OK above it.
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60 Noun Phrases
The Japanese whom we met at the trade conference were interested in our products.
1. I like authors who create a strong sense of place in their books.
2. The movie stars that we have today are not the role models that movie stars used to be.

4. All the tourists we saw at the beach were badly sunburned.
5. The planets they discussed during the lecture all orbited distant suns.
6. We had to return because the horse I was riding pulled up lame after half an hour.
7. We all had to approve the music they had picked for the wedding ceremony.
8. The performers we saw at the Chinese opera were as much acrobats as they were singers.
9. The tune they played during intermission kept running through my mind all night.
10. Lee is a person everyone likes at fi rst meeting.
11. An associate I had never met before took me into the conference room.
12. The meeting was a total disaster we should have seen coming.
13. The fl ight to Baltimore I had reservations for was cancelled, so I was out of luck.
14. The Christmas I remember best was when I was eight years old.
15. The artists we admire the most now are the French Impressionists.
16. The babysitter we had hired just called to say she couldn’t make it.
17. The defeat Thomas Dewey suffered at the hand of Truman in 1948 is the most famous upset
in American political history.
18. It was not the retirement we had planned for ourselves.
19. The type of cowboys we saw in the old movies never existed in reality.
20. The jury was not persuaded by the hypothetical arguments the defense put forward.
Restrictive and nonrestrictive adjective clauses
All adjective clauses modify the nouns that they follow (their antecedents). However, not all
adjective clauses are equal. Some adjective clauses signifi cantly restrict or limit the meaning of
the nouns they modify. Accordingly, these are called restrictive adjective clauses. Other adjec-
tive clauses, called nonrestrictive adjective clauses, do not affect the meaning of the nouns
they modify at all. They merely offer additional information about an already defi ned noun.
Put in other terms, the difference between restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses is the difference
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